This course familiarizes students with the novel concepts being used to revamp regulatory toxicology in response to a breakthrough National Research Council Report “Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy.” We present the latest developments in the field of toxicology—the shift from animal testing toward human relevant, high content, high-throughput integrative testing strategies. Active programs from EPA, NIH, and the global scientific community illustrate the dynamics of safety sciences.

Enseigné par

Lena Smirnova

Research Associate

Thomas Hartung

Professor

Transcription

In this model, you have a lesson on Epigenetics and MicroRNA. Why would we care about them when talking about environmental health and Toxicology? Here's an example which I will also describe in the lecture. The best evidence from my point of view why we should care about Epigenetics is the study conducted on monozygotic twins. So, genetic background was identical. And the researchers analyzed the epigenome of those individuals at different ages. And what they found was very interesting. Babies under age of three had pretty much the same epigenome, while as older in age and as more twins were, drifted apart from each other in their epigenome. Epigenome of twins of age 50 plus was very different. The conclusion? Our environment has a tremendous influence on our epigenetics and this should be considered to understand the mechanisms of toxicity and of environmental exposures. MicroRNAs are my babies. I have been working in the field of MicroRNA since I was a PhD student. And this is very important field not only for molecular biology. MicroRNAs are great candidates for biomarkers of exposure and disease. And in this lesson, I hope I will convince you why.